


Second Chances

by Lannakitty



Series: Second Chances [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: AU, Drama, F/M, Humor, Romance, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-27
Updated: 2010-06-27
Packaged: 2017-10-10 07:17:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lannakitty/pseuds/Lannakitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John gets a chance to make some changes</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Chances

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: First-strike and all of s4, including speculation on the finale. Very much an AU.

John Sheppard tilted his head back and jiggled the canteen. Two drops of water fell into his mouth, but no more. John sighed and wiped his forehead with the back of his arm and rolled his shoulders.

That was the last of his water.

If this crazy idea of Rodney's didn't work, well, he supposed he could maybe gate to another place. Maybe. Forty-thousand years was a damn long time. John screwed the cap back on his canteen and tossed it onto his pack. He walked up the steps and set his hands on his hips as he looked out of the broken window. Crystal-glass crunched under his feet.

Golden sand dunes stretched into the horizon.

It was beautiful, but it was wrong. Atlantis belonged on an ocean of water, not a sea of sand. He pulled down his shades and walked onto the balcony. He leaned on the railing without thinking. The corroded metal creaked under his touch and he jerked his hands away, abruptly remembering he probably shouldn't do that. John wiped the flakes of metal off on his pants and crossed his arms.

The hot desert wind blew across the landscape, flash drying the sweat at the back of his neck. Sand blew onto the balcony with a soft hissing sound. The desert had nearly swallowed the city, leaving only the control tower and the tips of the tallest buildings above the sand.

John turned away and clomped back inside, pulling his shades up as he went. He was bone tired, his feet dragged as he walked, but he was finally finished.

The hologram hadn't been very informative because Rodney hadn't had much time. But he'd managed to instruct John just enough.

Now the device was complete; a MacGyvered pile of things that had been left for him God knew how long ago. He'd cannibalized components from the remaining part of the tower. They'd left him a naquadah generator that didn't work because some of the components had dissolved away. He'd used bits from his radio to try and patch things together. It seemed to work.

John picked up his pack then decided he probably didn't need it. He let it fall to the floor and walked to the control room. The four pylons he'd had to construct out of crystals and circuitry stood just beyond the limit of the Kawoosh. Ancient cables ran across the floor to the Stargate.

John looked out the window at the sandy ocean again and dialed the address he'd been instructed to dial. The 'gate connected and the pylons began to hum with power. John jogged down and stood in the middle of his creation. He carefully closed the last wire connections and the pylons glowed.

John closed his eyes and winced as the humming sound grew louder and higher. He waited while the machinery worked up to whatever it was going to work to. John just hoped that this little misadventure in time didn't result in him naked on a street in California someplace.

The world around him stopped and he suddenly was seized by cold. The wind was knocked out of him and he could see his frozen puff of breath. It looked very wrong in the sandy room with the desert outside.

He felt like he was moving but his eyes said he was standing in one place. John closed his eyes against the vertigo but it did little to help.

Time travel hadn't been this painful the first time.

* * *

John sat up in his bed, gasping for air, his heart pounding. He looked around and recognized his quarters. Johnny smiled down at him benevolently from the wall. His laundry hamper stood half-full in the corner by his open closet. His guitar rested in its holder and his BDU jacket was thrown across the back of the couch.

John scrubbed a hand over his face and through his hair. He half expected to find sand, but found nothing. He lay back in bed, wondering why he'd had such a fucked up dream.

His alarm went off and he jolted upright, startled for a moment before he realized what it was. With a curse, he slapped at the offending hardware. Time to get up. He had a meeting with Carter to go over the list of planets where they suspected Michael had taken Teyla to. Then he and Ronon, Rodney and Lorne's team were going to start the search again.

John quickly showered and dressed. He picked up his tablet computer and tucked it under one arm as he headed down the hall, intent on coffee. John hopped into the transporter then stepped out again just as quickly. He nodded to Zelenka and Kusanagi as they passed by with steaming cups of coffee. The caffeine hadn't kicked in yet obviously, because he got a grunt from Radek and a half-hearted wave from Miko.

"Late night?" John joked.

"Is it not always?" Radek said as the two scientists stepped into the vacant transporter.

John chuckled and headed into the mess hall and began fixing his own cup of coffee. He juggled the computer, drink preparation and a fresh-looking banana for a moment before setting the fruit and computer on the counter so he could rip open the packet of sugar.

"Good morning, John."

John whirled around at the sound of that cheerful greeting.

He'd not heard her voice in over six months. The last time had been when he'd spoken with her replicator clone. John's jaw dropped as Elizabeth Weir calmly shook a couple packets of sugar before ripping them open and tipping the contents into her mug.

"I hope you have those performance evaluations," she said, making idle chatter, seemingly unaware of the miracle of her existence. "I'd like to get them sent out and processed by the end of tomorrow. I might have to sit on Rodney to get his done." She offered him a wry smile over her shoulder. "I was hoping you'd be on top of things."

She did a slight double take as she poured her cream into her coffee.

"John, are you feeling well?"

Her expression was a mixture of concern and amusement. His heart pounded in his chest as she began to stir her morning coffee. When he continued to gape at her, she gave him a confused look over the rim of her cup.

"John?" Her head tilted to the side, green eyes narrowing slightly as she assessed him.

John looked around, but no one else in the room seemed to take notice that Elizabeth had suddenly appeared in their midst.

"Elizabeth?" was all he could say. She blinked at him in surprise and set her mug down quickly.

"John, you don't look well," she placed the back of her hand on his forehead. John stepped back in shock. Her skin was cool and soothing. It was real.

She looked momentarily hurt, but then concerned. Her hand dropped to his upper arm.

"John, maybe you should go to the infirma-"

"You're alive."

"Yes," Elizabeth replied slowly. She sounded unsure of what he was talking about.

John ran a hand through his hair. "You're alive," he repeated. "This is a dream."

"I'm pretty sure I'm awake. John, you're beginning to scare me."

John reached forward and grabbed her shoulders, she felt real under his hands. He squeezed gently just to be sure. Elizabeth looked at his hands then searched his face.

Abruptly John let go. He shoved her back slightly, unsure if she was human or not, and unwilling to maintain contact if she wasn't.

"You're dead," he said. It had taken him a long while to finally come to grips with that fact. Elizabeth Weir was dead.

"No, John, I'm not."

"I saw them take you!" he snapped, feeling bad when she recoiled slightly. People were watching them now. Half a dozen forks were frozen in the air. "And then there was the other you! But she wasn't you," John shook his head. "She was so… Are you a replicator?"

The other Elizabeth had sounded so defeated. She might have been a clone of Elizabeth in body, but she wasn't Elizabeth in spirit. The real Elizabeth rallied back, even if she had moments of doubt.

Elizabeth's hand went for her radio. "Weir to Dr. Keller. Jen? I'm bringing John down to the infirmary." She grabbed his hand as she spoke. She began to pull him from the room, leaving their computers and coffee abandoned on the counter.

John pulled his hand from hers.

"John," Elizabeth said calmly, "you need to come with me." She held out a hand which he did not take. Her face wore one of the carefully constructed masks she wore when she was negotiating with someone dangerous. Part of John was pained, but another part of him was overjoyed to see her again.

John felt a looming presence to his right. He caught Ronon out of the corner of his eye. A quiet murmur had gone up in the back of the room, but John caught his name more than Elizabeth. Why wasn't anyone astonished she, or something pretending to be her, was here?

"Sheppard," Ronon's deep voice to his left let him know that Ronon thought he was the one acting oddly. John's eyes narrowed.

"Keller checks you for nanites," John stated his terms for going quietly. Elizabeth relaxed and nodded.

"Okay."

* * *

"Well," Jennifer Keller sighed as she flashed her penlight once again in John's eyes. "I don't see anything wrong with him physically. Nothing came up on the scanners. And," she turned to address John, "you saw she wasn't a replicator. So, what's going on, John?"

John's mind had been running since he'd seen with his own eyes that Elizabeth wasn't a replicator, and wasn't manipulating the machinery. As far as he could tell, he wasn't being fooled.

He briefly wondered if he wasn't in some sort of Replicator-induced hallucination, but this felt too real.

Which meant that Elizabeth was alive.

"What?" he asked. He tore his eyes away from the woman he'd finally managed to bury to look at the doctor.

"I asked, what's going on John?"

"I don't know. Why aren't you asking her that?" John frowned. He tilted his head to one side to look around Jen. "Did you descend? Did you drop down in the control room or something and no-one told me?"

If she'd descended, or de-ascended or whatever, and no one had told him, _someone_ was going to get scut jobs for the next month. He hadn't known she'd ascended, but he hoped she had. He'd never admitted it to anyone, but he'd hoped she'd gone all glowy and had escaped Oberoth.

He wondered if she'd dropped down naked. The reports stated that Dr. Jackson had shown up stark naked when he'd descended. He caught "Heightmeyer" in the quiet conversation the two women were having and john's head snapped up.

"What?"

"I'm sorry John, but I think maybe you should talk with Kate," Elizabeh told him. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and he watched it for a moment before following her arm up to her shoulder then her face. She felt real.

"You're not acting like yourself, and Jen can't find anything wrong. We've all been under a lot of stress. Maybe Kate can help."

"She's dead too," John said. Elizabeth recoiled. John hated the quick look of fear the passed behind her eyes. The diplomatic shield went back up and he knew he was probably frightening her. He wasn't feeling all that secure either.

"John, Kate Heightmeyer is not dead. I spoke with her yesterday."

"Let's try something else," Jen suggested. "John what's the last thing you remember? This could be a very powerful dream or some kind of alien device that causes hallucinations or-"

"It wasn't a dream! It wasn't a hallucination either!" John said as he hopped off the bed. The whine of Ronon's gun made him freeze. John eyed the gun and the man holding the weapon. His shoulders sagged and he rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands.

"Okay, I remember getting home late from checking M2X-449. Ronon and I grabbed some dinner form the fridges and then I crawled into bed around 0100 hours."

"That never happened," Ronon told him, eye arched.

"Great. Now you think I'm crazy too."

Ronon shrugged. "Wasn't sure you were sane before," he shot back as he holstered his weapon.

"Thanks," John retorted, his lip curling slightly.

"Well, okay," Jen said, breaking in. "What were you going to do this morning?"

"I had a meeting with Carter to go over the planets where we were going to look for Teyla."

"Woah, okay, Teyla?" Jen asked before Elizabeth or Ronon could voice the same question.

"Yes," John said, looking at them like they were the crazy ones.

"Why are we looking for Teyla?" Ronon asked.

"Because Michael took her?"

"Why would Michael take Teyla?" Jen asked.

"John, I spoke with Teyla right before I saw you. She's fine," Elizabeth said gently.

"Lorne saw her get nabbed by a dart. How'd she get back? She's not exactly in a condition to fight."

"Weir to Teyla," Elizabeth tapped her radio and John fell silent. "Teyla, could you come down to the infirmary? Yes it is. He seems to think you've been kidnapped. I will. Weir out."

John frowned while Elizabeth spoke into her radio. Elizabeth held up a forestalling hand when he opened his mouth to speak.

"Teyla said for me to assure you that she has not been kidnapped and that she will be down in a few minutes." She looked at him speculatively then asked, "Meeting with Carter? Colonel Carter?"

"Yeah."

"Why did you have a meeting with her?"

"Because she's the commander of Atlantis."

"John,"

"I wasn't going to take the job," John told her. "I don't think I can fly a desk, but it would have taken me out of the field and I couldn't. Not while there was a chance." He trailed off shaking his head.

"There was a chance of what?" Elizabeth asked.

"That, you know, you were still alive someplace." He shrugged. "She's a good choice. She can actually understand Rodney. She let me look for you, and now we're looking for Teyla. Why am I the only one who seems to know this?"

"I'm calling in Kate," Jen stated as she reached for her radio.

"Hey! I'm not crazy!"

"Could've fooled me," Ronon said.

John glowered at him. Things weren't adding up. He distinctly remembered the look on Lorne's face when he'd said that Teyla had been taken by the dart. He'd remembered the look of grim determination on Elizabeth's face as she'd told them to leave her and go. That image in particular was seared into his memory.

It had to have been real.

John closed his eyes and wished he'd wake up. Elizabeth and Kate Heightmeyer were apparently alive in this dream. He wondered why Carson wasn't around, but two out of three was something he'd take. It wasn't an unpleasant dream, but he was trying to get past the pain and the loss and live again. Teyla and her kid needed him or they'd both end up with the rest of the ghosts that had begun to haunt him.

"John?"

John's eyes opened and fell on Teyla. A very worried, very thin, very not-pregnant Teyla.

"You're not pregnant," he stated. Teyla tilted her head to one side, eyes narrowed. She shot a glance at Elizabeth who shrugged minutely.

"No, John. I am not."

"But you were huge!"

She arched a brow and John quickly backtracked, recognizing he'd probably said something wrong.

"Well huge in the really good sense? Not like fat, or anything. Glowing!" Seeing that Teyla was wearing her "John's being an idiot. Again. But I am somewhat concerned anyway" expression, John sighed. "Don't tell me. You have no idea what I'm talking about."

"I am afraid I do not, John."

"So somehow Elizabeth and Heightmeyer are both miraculously alive, you and Kannan aren't expecting and you haven't been kidnapped by Michael. Because Elizabeth is here, Colonel Carter isn't in charge and I'm betting there hasn't been any kind of plague and the replicators haven't been destroyed." John sighed. "I bet Carson's clone isn't in a stasis pod either, huh?"

He realized that everyone was looking at him like he was some kind of raving lunatic. John's shoulder sagged.

"Guess not."

He knew he hadn't dreamed this. He knew it was real. Again he wondered if he wasn't in some kind of Replicator illusion.

He saw Heightmeyer arrive and groaned. It wasn't that he didn't dislike her. He just knew that he wasn't crazy. John found Elizabeth's eyes again. Something in his chest turned as she spoke quietly with Heightmeyer.

She'd been gone. He'd failed her. He'd only managed to find some measure of peace by finally getting the bastards who'd taken her from the city and the people who loved her dearly. Elizabeth started to walk toward him and he realized some of his thoughts must have shown on his face.

This was the cruelest dream, or hallucination or constructed reality he'd ever had the misfortune of encountering. He'd go back to reality, Rodney would save his ass, and she'd be gone. And he'd have to mourn all over again. He hated it.

Maybe he was going crazy and the year hadn't really happened.

"John, why do you think I'm dead. Or was dead," Elizabeth asked gently.

"You were supposed to stay with Rodney but you came after us to help. You ordered us to leave."

"Leave you where."

"The replicator homeworld."

"Why were we there?"

"Because we needed a ZPM for the city. We were stuck in space without it."

"We don't have the power to get the city into space, John."

"We used the undersea drilling platform."

"Okay," Elizabeth nodded, allowing that as a possibility. "Why were we in space."

"Because the damn replicator gate satellite thing," he waved a hand vaguely before rubbing his eyes, "was draining the shields and was going to destroy the city."

"Okay," Elizabeth said, prompting him to explain more.

"They took issue with us trying to nuke their planet," John explained, pouring the distain he now felt for that plan into the comment.

Elizabeth's eyes widened. "Why in the world would we do that?" she asked.

"Because they were building city-ships. The Daedalus was doing recon runs and someone high up in the shrub's food-chain decided we should hit them first with the mark-nines. So The Apollo drops into orbit,"

"The Apollo?" Elizabeth questioned, breaking in to John's story.

"Yeah, why?"

"The Apollo isn't due here for another few days?"

"What?" John asked, confused. "Why are they coming back?"

"Coming back? John, the Apollo has never been to Atlantis before. They're crossing right now."

* * *

John paced while he waited for Elizabeth to contact Earth and confirm any bit of John's story. He'd had his fill of standing still, so he stalked in a circle around the isolation room. Ronon watched him from his slouch by the door, so he wasn't really isolated. He couldn't blame them for putting him here. He was happy he wasn't in a cell in the brig, but John would have much rather have been there at the video conference.

It was hard to believe he'd somehow managed to travel a year into the past. Or something. Keller insisted he wasn't an older than he should be. John had no idea how it could have happened.

He'd related the strange dream. Well, what little he'd remembered of it. The vision of Atlantis in a sea of sand hadn't yielded any answers. Heightmeyer had been reluctant to do any dream analysis, stating she wasn't really certain that it had been a dream at all.

Once the time travel was on the table, pretty much all bets were off.

It had come out that John was about a year off from where he thought he should have been. They'd called Rodney in and he'd landed on the hypothesis that time travel was somehow involved. John couldn't remember being sent, either on purpose or accidentally. But he was convinced he knew how the next year would turn out. Elizabeth was calling Earth to check some of John's claims.

John stopped when he heard the doors slide open. Elizabeth walked through with Rodney and Teyla trailing behind.

"Well, you were right about the preemptive strike," Elizabeth informed him. John could hear the cutting edge of fury underlying her words.

"I told you I wasn't crazy." John stopped pacing. "So now what."

"Now we need to figure out what exactly happened to you," Rodney said. He held a scanner and began adjusting settings.

"Well did you get them to call off the strike?"

"No."

"No? Why not? Didn't you tell them what a colossally bad idea it was?"

"John, I told them everything you told me." She paused as a myriad of emotions passed across her face. John took it as a sign of how much stress she was feeling. "They'd like to debrief you in a few hours."

"What?"

"They'd like you to assemble a full report and debrief them."

"On the year I remember?"

"On the year you remember," Elizabeth confirmed.

John ran a hand through his hair and glared at Rodney who was buzzing around him with some kind of Ancient scanner. "Okay then. Maybe I can fix things."

* * *

John was seething. Despite the fact that General O'Neill had been convinced by Rodney's findings, higher powers were still adamant about hitting the replicators first. In fact, some were more convinced than ever that this was the right solution. Ellis had arrived and been surprised to find Atlantis' command staff had been fully briefed already.

This time John hadn't gone with Ellis. He knew where this path lead and he didn't like it. John stalked through the gateroom. The light in Elizabeth's office was still on. He hadn't seen her since Ellis had departed. John had needed to blow off some steam. He'd gone for a run with Ronon.

Now he thought he had his emotions under control. He and Elizabeth needed to make plans.

"Hey," John leaned casually against her doorway. It felt weird to be walking back into her office and see the tribal masks again. He'd finally gotten used to Carter's pictures of home and Gregor, her bonsai. Seeing Calvin and Hobbs on the wall again was comforting.

Elizabeth looked up from her desk and set her stylus down. "John."

John sat in the seat across from her desk and wondered if he'd be able to convince her to get better chairs after this was all over. Probably not, but he'd give it a try. He'd felt strangely guilty for liking Carter's office furniture better.

"So, we've got probably 24 hours before the Asurans come calling," He said as he slouched in the seat.

Elizabeth watched him for a moment. "What was Colonel Carter like as base CO?"

"Carter? Good. A lot of our people are former SGC types so they'd known her before. She's a scientist so Rodney was happy. Well, eventually. He thought she was going to take over for about a week, made everyone's life more difficult. I think she had a chat with him and he got over it. Between you, me and the masks? I don't think she knew what kind of paperwork she was getting into."

John was rewarded with a smile which warmed his heart. Carter was, had been? Whatever. He'd liked Carter, and she'd come to care deeply for the people here, but he'd known her heart was in Washington. Elizabeth's was here. Yeah, dealing with military matters had been easier, but he wouldn't have traded any of his verbal sparring matches with Elizabeth for the world.

"She had a bonsai," John said. Elizabeth quirked a brow at that apparently random comment. John shrugged and explained. "Colonel Carter. She talks to her plants. She had a bonsai. I think it had a Japanese name until Rodney found out. Then she started calling it Gregor just to annoy him."

"Because it wasn't a pea planet?" Elizabeth asked. John nodded.

"Yep. I can't tell you how many times I expected to walk in here and see Calvin and Hobbes." He pointed at her masks and she chuckled. "So!" he clapped his hands together. "Lets plan!"

"For what?"

"What do you mean, for what? For when the Asuran gate thing gets here. Great idea if you're not on the receiving end, I have to say."

"John,"

"Hey, I've been thinking about this and since I know that submerging the city isn't going to work, how about we just lift off before they get here."

"John,"

"It's a great idea. I've flown the city once before so it will be even easier this time."

"We're not doing that, John."

"Why not?"

"Because we don't know if we'll be attacked. You've already changed the past," she fiddled with her stylus and didn't meet his eyes. "I don't think doing any drastic changes will be a good thing."

John looked at her for a moment. "Why not?"

"John." She held up a hand but John couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Elizabeth we've already had this timeline changed once and it was a drastic change for the better. Or did you forget your first birthday here?" He held up the pot he'd given her as a visual reminder. Her eyes flashed in anger for an instant before she schooled her expression.

"We won't know anything until the Apollo returns," she said, avoiding the subject.

"Elizabeth, be reasonable."

"John, you said yourself, the events in your timeline led to the defeat of the replicators. I don't want to jeopardize that." Her eyes met his then flicked away. "There were minimal casualties and you've already locked the crystal planet from the gate computer."

John glowered at her for a moment. He didn't know how she could be so calm about this. If she'd suddenly told him that he'd died in an alternate timeline, he would have done whatever was necessary to prevent his own death. Well, he probably would. There were some circumstances where he might follow though. Saving the city or Earth were two examples. He wondered if she thought her death would ensure the demise of the replicators.

"Elizabeth," he began then wasn't sure how to continue. He wasn't good with talking about his own feelings. He's always had the impression that women had fare more dense and complex layers of emotion, wrapped in enigma, wrapped in mystery, wrapped in booby-traps. He decided to side step the issue slightly.

"I think that we can minimize losses if we take steps now. Losing anyone is unacceptable," he stated, keeping his voice even and calm.

"I think we can just let things play out. The replicators were defeated and we're on course for that same thing. Let's just wait and see. There isn't a point at committing resources and-"

"Bullshit!"

"Colonel!"

"That's bullshit and you know it. I told you how we did it before. Rodney was there. We can recreate what happened before if it comes to that. But we are _not_ going down that same path."

"John I-"

John rose out of his seat in anger and placed both hands on her desk.

"You what? You've already let me lock the crystal planet out of the system. I've told you where we can find the clone Michael's keeping. With some planning we can save Carson too. You are not dying because some idiot at the pentagon had itchy trigger fingers. Two out of three is _not acceptable!_"

"This is more than a single life, Colonel," Elizabeth rose as well, her voice cold and furious. "This is more than about me or what I want. This is more than about what you might find _acceptable_, Colonel." She spat his title in his face and he barely managed to avoid wincing. "This is about the galaxy. This about Earth. If I have to trade my life to save my home? I will do it. If I have to be sacrificed so that the people of this galaxy do not die? Then so be it. If my death buys my city and my people a chance to fight and save countless others? I will _gladly_ walk into that fire."

"You don't have to die!"

"You don't know that! You told me I had something to do with getting you, Rodney and Ronon out of the Asuran planet. Maybe," she waved a hand, looking for a word. It was an uncoordinated and stressed gesture which spoke volumes about her state of mind. "Maybe interfacing with me, or the clone of me, or the research Rodney and Jen do? Maybe that's key somehow. You said yourself you didn't know the specific details. We should just let it play out."

John dropped his head and leaned heavily on the desk. He thought she was acting irrationally and it was taking a great deal of effort on his part not to lash out at her. He wanted to haul her over his shoulder, tie her up and stash her in some nice safe room until this crisis was over. Or better yet, send her away from the city as far as he could send her. He could probably get General O'Neill to put her in a nice cozy cell deep in the protective heart of Cheyenne Mountain. She'd hate him but he didn't give a damn at the moment.

"Do you want to die?" he asked when he finally had his anger under control.

"No."

"Because that's an awful lot what it sounds like."

"John,"

"Look," he interrupted her. "I understand sacrifice." He met her eyes and tried to convey just how well he was acquainted with sacrifice. It came hand in hand with being a soldier. "But I don't believe in needless sacrifice."

"It would hardly be needless,"

"What is wrong with you!"

It was less of a question and more of a statement of outrage and frustration. He didn't get why she seemed to be so defeated. He hadn't noticed this before. Of course then, he'd been quite happy with the turn of events. She hadn't been. He straightened as he remembered something Teyla had mentioned to him once.

"You are not leaving," he stated. "This was a stupid decision. I know! I've got 20/20 hind sight! But there is no helping idiots with power who have guns and an itch to use them."

Elizabeth looked a little confused by his sudden change in demeanor but she said nothing. John sighed and slouched back into the chair. After a moment she sat back down as well.

"Look," he scrubbed a hand over his face. "I was excited as well. The first time I mean. I thought we could really do something. I had no idea what kind of a hornet's nest we would uncover. I wasn't exactly supportive."

"Well, if things work out like you have already experienced, it works out in the end."

John bit back an acerbic comment and tapped his fingers on his knees. "What I am saying is that we can plant Rodney's program without the death part."

"You only succeeded before because I was able to help you, because I had a connection to the replicators."

"True," John said, drawing out the word. "But I remember the layout of the tower and Rodney can probably make something to mimic the intel you were able to give us before."

"But you don't know that."

"Not for sure no. But this isn't the way."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, something happens. Something had to have happened for me to come back here and now. I can't remember it, but, I'm sure it's all related. I mean as much as I, as we all want to see…things change? As much as we want that, I don't think I'd have been sent back just to save you and Heightmeyer and spring Carson's clone early."

Elizabeth sighed.

"Let's just take some precautions we should have taken the first time. No one stands anyplace precarious. We keep away form the windows. We run things form Auxiliary control. Just some small changes and we go from there."

Her smile was bitter.

"I'm not sure they're let you."

"_They_ are not in charge. You are. They've stirred up a mess, but you and I are the ones who will clean it up. They can't force you to go stand in front of that window," he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "We'll fix this. You can. I know it. A military solution isn't going to work here."

"I don't think Oberoth will be particularly inclined to talk once we've nuked their planet." The ice was back.

"He won't be. He wasn't before. I was amazed you were able to argue our point at all, but he didn't buy it."

"No?" he voice was heavy with sarcasm. John smirked back.

"No. He tried to send a virus. Gave Rodney and our IT guys heart attacks."

"I'm a diplomat, John. I'm supposed to argue the position of my leaders."

John smiled. "Right! Which is why I'm sure that eventually you'll be able to fix this. The gung-ho, guns blazing military solution isn't going to work. We might not get Rodney's program to work, but," he held up a finger. "Wouldn't it be better if we didn't need it?"

He could see the light of interest in her eyes. John knew she thrived on difficult negotiations and bargaining. Most of the traders they worked with didn't even know what hit them when they left the table after meeting with Elizabeth. He'd once told her he was thankful she only used her powers for good. She had laughed off the compliment, but John knew she took pride in her skills for good reason.

"I suppose," she allowed.

John went in for the kill. "Good. So we'll start to siphon off power from the drilling station."

Her eyes narrowed and John wondered if it had been such a good idea to bring up her diplomatic prowess after all.

* * *

In the end, John was only partially successful in getting safety plans set up. They'd submerged the city, but the Asuran satellite had found them anyway. It didn't matter since apparently they couldn't transfer power from the drilling platform from the surface of the ocean anyway.

John had made an announcement about a bumpy ride and had advised everyone to stay away from any windows.

The biggest snags had come from his great idea to move the command staff to auxiliary control. Apparently that wasn't acceptable to Rodney, who insisted that they'd be fine. Elizabeth had backed Rodney.

John had pulled both Teyla and Ronon aside and explained how Elizabeth had been hurt the first time. If Teyla couldn't reason with her, well, that was why he'd given Ronon the rolls of duct tape.

There hadn't been time or energy to contact Earth, so John hadn't managed to send Elizabeth away. She'd stubbornly insisted that she stay in the tower.

As John sank into the chair and interfaced with the city, he thought about what had happened the first time, and prayed they had the power to take off without turning off the shield. John didn't completely trust the Asteroid they were using as a shield.

* * *

The air was warmer than usual, was the first thing that John immediately noticed upon stepping through the stargate. The second thing was the sand. A drift of red-gold sand had piled up against one the pylons which supported the staircase.

The windows were broken and, as john slowly looked around, he could see endless dunes stretch out before him.

"Crap."

He winced as his voice echoed off the halls. John let his pack slide to the floor as he looked around. He was either in an identical city and had somehow been sent to the wrong place.

Of this was Atlantis, and he was in huge trouble.

John lifted his pack, it was best to take it with him he reasoned, and walked up the steps to the control room. He heard skittering as some unknown animals fled. He hoped that they weren't poisonous.

John thought about calling out, but thought better of it. Best not to alert anything larger and hungrier than he was, he reasoned.

The control consoles had lost their covers. Time and animal activity had shredded them. Silvery threads wafted on the breeze. John carefully tugged a sheet away. It disintegrated in a puff of silver dust. John tried to will the console to life, but it remained dark.

John looked at the bridge and decided not to cross over. The metal structure of the span was clearly visible where chunks of the ultra-durable concrete had crumbled away. John wandered into the meeting room. The Lanteans had left a message there last time.

A device of some sort sat in the center of the room, bolted to the floor. "To John" had been etched into the casing. It looked a little like a naquadah generator. John left his pack by the doorway and carefully turned the machine on.

"Is this thing on?"

John whirled as an aged Rodney McKay appeared in the air.

"Yes? Okay. Good. John? If you are receiving this, then you've traveled anywhere from ten to fifty-thousand years into the future. Carter and I are sorry we can't pinpoint it better. We're guessing it's more like forty, but well, what's a few tens of thousands of years, give or take?"

"Rodney!" A rough voice off to the side called the scientist to task. The accent sounded like Radek, but there was an unfamiliar roughness.

"Yes. Well. We have left you things which you will need to construct a way back home. If things have been taken or broken or whatever, hopefully there will be parts leftover in the consoles. I believe you remember my password? Use that to access the programs we have left for you. There is very little power and we have no idea how much the generators might have decayed. You've got one shot John."

John had walked around the rambling hologram as it spoke. Rodney had aged thirty or forty years. John couldn't tell if it was artificial aging because of a Wraith attack or if it was real.

"John? You need to stop what happened. You need to stop Michael from getting Teyla and her son. He took over, John. He used the Athosians as a base and started making an army. We couldn't stop him. John? Earth's gone."

Gone? John reeled in shock. The recording showed that Rodney had needed a moment as well.

"We finally think we found out what happened to you, and, at the risk of sounding like a horrible cliché, you're our only hope. Now," Rodney's hands waved as he got down to technical details. "We've pinpointed where you need to end up to stop Teyla from being kidnapped by the dart. Details are in the case which should be bolted to the floor. I really hope I see you again. Good luck."

The hologram winked out and the generator powered down with an unhealthy whine.

John put Rodney's password into the case. It opened with a hiss, revealing a tablet computer which looked remarkably well preserved.

Rodney had said they'd input data to get him back before Teyla had been kidnapped. John powered up the computer and thought.

Maybe he could go back earlier…

* * *

John gasped in the chair. Was that a memory?

"Colonel?" Zelenka asked form his computers.

"Yeah? I'm Fine. Fine," John assured him. The city rumbled under his fingertips, straining for the surface. He needed more power.

"We're going to drop the shield for a moment so we can lift off," Rodney told him over the radio. John grimaced. He'd warned them about the asteroid and the shield. Rodney had been confidant he'd recalculated how Lorne and his team needed to pull the asteroid to prevent that same problem.

"Get someplace safe. This isn't going to be a smooth ride," John warned.

Power flooded through Atlantis, redirected from the shield to the engines. The city lurched from the water and swiftly rose.

"Got it!" Rodney called over the radio. "Reactivating the shield! Damnit!"

John focused on getting the city to continue to soar upwards and into hyperspace. The sooner they were away the sooner he could find out what happened.

He quickly disengaged form the chair and ran out the door before Zelenka could rise from his own seat.

"Rodney!" John called over the radio. "Rodney, come in!"

John waited for the transporter to work and flew out of the doors before they were fully open. He entered the control room and glass crunched under his feet. The distinct smell of burnt control crystals filled the air.

The window was once again shattered. Medical teams were on scene. There was talk of minor injuries, but John was frozen to the spot. He looked down the steps towards the Stargate. There was bloody glass at the bottom. He felt sick, defeated, he'd failed aga-

"John."

John turned around so quickly he stumbled. Elizabeth stood next to Ronon. John distantly noted that Ronon didn't have a shard of glass stuck in his chest this time.

She was alive.

There were tiny cuts on her forehead and a bruise was already forming on her cheek. Her hands shook just a little as she clasped and unclasped them.

"Elizabeth." John looked down at the blood and back at her.

"Sergeant Peters was struck by something. He was talking but it was a head wound," she explained. There was a small waver in her voice.

"Those bleed a lot," John agreed, taking a few steps toward her, hardly believing his eyes. Her expression tightened and suddenly she was hugging him.

Startled, John stood there for a moment before bringing his arms around her. He'd missed his friend. Life was still uncertain, but she hadn't been taken from him this time. Elizabeth was shaking, but she wasn't crying.

John rubbed her arms, hoping to help ease the trembling. There was soot on her face and tracks of blood. He reached up and carefully picked a shiny bit of glass out of her hair. He looked over the small cuts. There were some small bits of glass that Keller would need to remove. He held up her hand and saw more little bits of glass embedded in her skin.

"You need to get this looked at," he said, fingers hovering over the red dots. She nodded silently.

She cleared her throat twice before she was able to speak. "Ronon grabbed me as I walked by. If he hadn't," she trained off, biting her lower lip. Her eyes were watery.

"Should've used the tape," Ronon said. He plucked an inch-long piece of glass out of his arm and casually flicked it away before reaching for another.

John's eyes met his. "Thank you," John said.

Ronon nodded. John could tell he understood.

The city shuddered and the three looked up in alarm.

"Oh what now?" Rodney complained from the inside of a smoking console. Teyla helped him up with a hand.

"Oh."

"What is it Sheppard?"

John scratched his head. "Yeah. We just dropped out of hyperspace"

"Yeah, I can see that. Why?"

"Something about the conduits and leaky pipes."

"What?"

"The beam damaged some conduits, so the city is out putting more to get around the leaks

"So we fix the damage before we bleed to death."

John snapped his fingers. "Do the radios work? Everyone needs to stay in the central tower. Because we got hit, the shield is going to collapse."

Rodney blinked at him. "That would be bad."

"We lost three people last time. That's why I wanted everyone to stay here this time. Now we just have to make sure no-one wanders off."

Rodney looked over at Elizabeth. "I'll go fix this." He looked over at John. "Anything else?"

"Well, if we came out at the same place, we're going to clip an asteroid field in a few hours."

"What?" Rodney exclaimed.

"Don't worry," John said. "I've got it covered."

Rodney gave him an odd look then shook his head and began talking with Zelenka over the radio. John contacted his people and explained the situation.

"Do you have all the answers now?" Elizabeth asked. She was delicately picking glass out of her hand. John felt a little guilty for jumping in and issuing orders, but she didn't look annoyed with him.

John held her arm up and gently began to help. Elizabeth's other arm dropped to her side as she let John work.

"Sorry for jumping in like that," he said.

"No, I'm glad you did. This would have been much worse."

"You have no idea," John said as he carefully searched her other arm for any glass. He frowned at the pieces in her face. He reached up and carefully removed those as well.

"While I was in the chair, I remembered something."

"What?" she asked.

"It's kind of a long story and I got tossed forward and then sent back. Something awful happened. I think all our worst fears about the Wraith were realized. Things were so bad, I was send back to fix it."

"Do you think you've done it? Fixed the future?"

John wiped a smudge of soot from her face then stuffed his hands in his pockets when he realized what he was doing.

"I don't know," he said. "But it's already better."


End file.
